Orbitz CEO: We See Ourselves As An Insurgent
Skift Take
From the front lines of online and mobile travel, Orbitz Worldwide still thinks it can be a winner as an insurgent, although there hasn't been any major evidence of a surge.
Mock him, disparage him, take your best shot, but Orbitz Worldwide CEO Barney Harford sees the company as an "insurgent."
Offering a line of reasoning similar in some ways to one espoused by Hipmunk's Adam Goldstein yesterday, Harford argues that Orbitz Worldwide can take some risks in the marketplace, such as offering hotel discounts and taking the consequent hit as part of its revamped Orbitz Rewards program, that would be problematic to a more hotel-focused and larger Priceline, for example.
Launching Hotel Price Assurance several years ago and the "transformational" rewards program, which Harford "thinks coul
